Cranberry-Nettle Breakfast Cake

At our house morning menus are fairly routine. We're big fans of eggs and lovers of oatmeal; quick and simple. Once or twice a week we shake things up and have a more carb-heavy breakfast of pancakes, waffles, muffins or coffee cake. Mmm.

A couple of months ago, when the weather was still cold, I experimented with a hearty breakfast cake recipe in an attempt to find a way to use up a few bags of $0.99 organic cranberries I had snagged at the grocery. Feeling a bit daring, I tossed some dried nettle into the batter, too. As I slid the pan into the oven I thought, "Nettle? Really? What have I done?!"

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You know what? You couldn't even taste it! It was delicious! And thus this recipe is a perfect example of how easy it is to integrate nutritious tonic herbs into your everyday cooking. I love to cook and I love to try new recipes, but even more I love to take our true and tried family favorites and make them even more nourishing for my family. That's the beauty of cooking with tonic herbs. Incorporating them into your favorite meals can be a piece of cake. Pun intended.

Why not join me in my madness and toss a tonic herb into your favorite recipe today? Better yet, leave a comment and let me how it goes: huge success or epic failure? I bet you'll find it goes off better than you'd think!

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Cranberry-Nettle Breakfast Cake

by the Nourishing Herbalist

Ingredients

• 2 cups unbleached flour
• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1 cup whole oats
• 4 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 2 t. cinnamon
• 1/4 cup dried nettle
• zest of one orange
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar (or Rapadura)
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 2/3 cup greek yogurt
• 1.75 cups milk
• 3 drops Wild Orange essential oil
• 2/3 cup fresh organic cranberries*
• 2 T. water
• 8 drops Stevia extract
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 3 T. orange juice

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375F

1. Combine dry ingredients together in a large bowl.2. In a large mixing bowl, combine coconut oil, orange zest, sugar, yogurt, milk, and orange oil. Using a mixer, mix until thoroughly combined.3. Place cranberries, water and stevia in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times until roughly chopped. Add to the wet ingredients.4. Dump dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix slowly just until combined.5. Pour batter into a 9 X 13 pan, that has been greased or lined with parchment paper. 6. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.7. Meanwhile, combine powdered sugar and orange juice, adding more or less of either ingredient until desired icing consistency is reached.8. Serve cake with icing drizzled over the top. Enjoy!

Details

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 35 mins Total time: 55 mins Yield: 8 servings

Note: Always remember when selecting essential oils to purchase food-grade 100% pure oil, identified by the FDA as GRAS -- "generally recognized as safe" -- and containing a nutritional label on the bottle. Keep in mind that all essential oils can be toxic when ingested in amounts higher than the maximum 3 drops per day per person.

* If you don't happen to have fresh cranberries on hand, use 1/2 cup of dried cranberries and increase the milk to 2 cups.